94 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



afford more or less obvious attachment or support to the adjaceut em- 

 bryos by means of the thin structureless membranes already spoken of. 



While I have had practically but a single stage of development to 

 study, it is obvious that we have in this instance a very remarkable 

 condition of affairs in the ovary. It is clear, I think, that the method 

 of viviparous development as seen in Sebastes is quite diflerent from 

 that observed in other types of viviparous fishes, so that this type adds 

 another to the several forms of development noticed in a paper which 

 I have recently published.* 



Washington, D. C, 3farc]i 27, 1SS6. 



32.— IVEW EIVGIiAIVD FISHERIES IIV I7IARCH, ISSfl. 



By "W. A. ll^ii^COX. 



The mouth came in with the longest and most severe of the many 

 gales during the past winter. The storm began February 25 and con- 

 tinued until March 3. During much of this time the thermometer in- 

 dicated zero or below, and the wind blew from 50 to 75 miles an hour. 

 One hundred and forty-three sail from Gloucester were absent at 

 this time on cod and halibut trips to George's Bank; and as several 

 days passed with no arrivals or news from them, much anxiety was 

 felt. All at "last arrived, mostly more or less damaged. Ten men were 

 lost by being swept overboard, two vessels losing two men each and six 

 vessels one man each. It is doubtful whether any previous record will 

 show as many lost during a single storm by being washed overboard. 

 Much suffering was experienced from the excessive cold weather. 



Among the arrivals, schooner Fitz J. Babson reports that on February 

 27, on George's Bank, the decks were swept and three dories stove by a 

 heav3' sea, and that as soon as the deck was cleared a small-sized live 

 mackerel was found to have been washed aboard. This may be recorded 

 as the first mackerel caught this season. During the month the fish- 

 ermen have several times reported finding mackerel in the stomachs of 

 codfish caught on George's Bank. 



The frozen-herring fleet from the United States to Fortune Bay, New- 

 foundland, numbered twenty sail, all belonging to Gloucester. One 

 has previously been reported wrecked f while on the way home; the 

 others all brought full fares, the last to arrive being the schooner Her- 

 man Babson, arriving March 8. 



Codfish have been abundant, and when the weather permitted fishing 

 a good catch has been made on George's Bank and in Ipswich Bay. 

 The fleet in Ipswich Bay numbered forty -three sail that used trawls and 

 seventeen sail that fished with gill-nets. Before the gale, which des- 

 troyed many nets, those using them were doing well. The schooner Sarah 



* Ou the Developmeut of Viviparous Osseous Fishes. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1885; 

 pp. 128-155, pis. VI-XI. 



tSee F. C. Bulletiu, 1886, p. 79. 



